Frank Bruno has spoken to the minister for care services about his treatment by mental health services last year (see EDP report). He had already spoken to the Sunday Mirror. As he says on his website, he wants to highlight "what is wrong in the treatment of mental health patients".
We're not all exercise fanatics like Frank, and some of his other points may need refining, but his campaign should be supported. I had a letter published in the Observer when he was also sectioned in 2003.
4 comments:
Good on ya Frank
I think this is the first sports-star I can recall this critical of the the Mental Health System.
It would have nice if on the site the use of the term "mental illness" was qualified with a disclaimer like "so-called", after all, without the reification of the concept "mind", it is impossible to assert that minds can be susceptible to literal pathology.
It would be amazing if ministers could listen to ordinary service users and disability activists who would offer a wider perspective than Bruno, Fry, Wax et al, but they refuse to.
They may all have a reasonable point each but none speak of wider issues which are more pressing i.e. how housing/welfare policies are making lives hell
Dr Double and Ted,
Did you see the film made by Frank's daughter earlier this year?
Dr Double,
Do you really want to go back to pre 1983 psychiatric hospitals? As a teenager I worked in the laundry at Burntwood in Staffordshire alongside patients who were working for a token amount of money to buy fags. They would pick loose tobacco from the clothes as they emptied the laundry bags, often containing fouled items. They weren't treated badly by the laundry workers, but they were not treated with respect. Their behaviour was controlled by drugs which resulted in permanent, severe facial distortions and shuffling gaits. They are sometimes referred to as major tranquilisers aren't they? Many more people were in those asylums than are in psychiatric units today and I don't think there was a lot of choice for many about their treatment.
To look back at a "golden" pre Mental Health Act era is bizarre.
But it is true that a lack of resources in social and welfare policies damages the mental health of many and then gives rise to many admissions and the delay of many discharges.
Dave
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